Patent 8646001

Assignment history

Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.

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Ownership chain (2)

Asserters network →

Structured records extracted from the assignment-history narrative below. Each entity links to its full ownership-network profile.

  1. 2000-09-22 · ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST

    HARVEY, JOHN C., CUDDIHY, JAMES W.PERSONALIZED MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS, L.L.C.

    transfer-from-inventors-to-original-assignee

  2. 2025-06-09 · ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST

    PERSONALIZED MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS, LLCCONTENTNEXUS LLC

    transfer-to-asserter

Assignment history

Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.

✓ Generated

Inventors

  • John Christopher Harvey
  • James William Cuddihy

The employer of the inventors at the time of filing is not determinable from the provided patent text.

Original assignee

The original assignee, as indicated on the issued patent and the application filing, was Personalized Media Communications LLC.

Personalized Media Communications LLC's primary line of business, based on the patent's description, appears to be related to signal processing, content distribution, interactive television, and managing/monitoring programming use, likely involving personalized content delivery and licensing thereof. The patent itself describes an "integrated system of methods and apparatus for communicating programming," suggesting the company developed or licensed technology for such systems, rather than directly shipping a consumer product embodying the claims. The patent notes that "One such system is the IBM Personal Computer... with an IBM Asynchronous Communications Adapter installed in one expansion slot and a PC-MicroKey Model 1300 System," implying the invention could be implemented using existing hardware.

The current legal status of the patent, according to Google Patents, is "Expired - Fee Related".

Assignment timeline

  • 2000-09-22 (executed) / recorded 2000-09-22 — Reel N/A
    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
    • Assignor: HARVEY, JOHN C., CUDDIHY, JAMES W.
    • Assignee: PERSONALIZED MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS, L.L.C.
    • Correspondent: Not determinable from the provided source.
    • Context: Transfer from inventors to original assignee.
  • 2025-06-09 (executed) / recorded 2025-06-09 — Reel N/A
    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
    • Assignor: PERSONALIZED MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
    • Assignee: CONTENTNEXUS LLC
    • Correspondent: Not determinable from the provided source.
    • Context: Transfer to new assignee.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8646001
    1995 : Application filed by PMC LLC
    2000 : Inventors assigned to PMC LLC
    2014 : Patent granted
    2025 : Assigned to Contentnexus LLC
    2026 : US case filed Texas Eastern

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — Present. The patent was transferred from Personalized Media Communications, LLC to CONTENTNEXUS LLC on 2025-06-09. "CONTENTNEXUS LLC" has a generic name often associated with patent licensing or assertion entities, and there is no indication that Contentnexus LLC develops or sells products.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — Present. Personalized Media Communications LLC (PMC) is a known Non-Practicing Entity (NPE). The Google Patents page explicitly states "Family has litigation" and links to "Unified Patents Litigation Data," indicating a US case (2:26-cv-00323) was filed in the Texas Eastern District Court. Unified Patents is an organization that tracks NPE activity, and its listing of litigation for this patent is a strong indicator of assertion.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. Correspondent information is not available in the provided patent text or legal event snippets.
  4. Cascading transfers — Not present. Only two distinct assignment events are recorded (inventors to PMC, then PMC to Contentnexus), which does not constitute cascading transfers.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — Unclear. The assignment to Contentnexus LLC occurred on 2025-06-09. A US case (2:26-cv-00323) was filed in the Texas Eastern District Court, but its specific filing date is not provided. If the litigation was initiated within six months of the June 9, 2025, assignment date, this signal would be present.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no information to suggest that the patent was sold as part of bankruptcy proceedings.
  7. Privateering — Not present. No information is provided to suggest privateering.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The current assignee is Contentnexus LLC, not a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

This verdict is supported by two strong signals: the presence of a known Non-Practicing Entity, Personalized Media Communications LLC, in the chain, and the explicit mention of active litigation for this patent family by Unified Patents (US case 2:26-cv-00323). Furthermore, the recent transfer to CONTENTNEXUS LLC, an entity with a generic name often associated with licensing or assertion, reinforces the high confidence of NPE activity.

For verification, see the Google Patents record: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US8646001](/patent/US8646001)/en and the associated Unified Patents litigation data.

Generated 5/30/2026, 6:45:56 AM